Escarole Soup

We love the chicory family of vegetables here at Sweet Morning Farm.  Endive frisee and radicchio in salad and cooked escarole are some of our favorites.  Mostly with greens, I just saute them with olive oil and garlic with a cover on the pot, sort of steaming them in their own juice.  Yum.  Lately we've had a lot of escarole ready in the garden, more that the farm shares can easily use, so yesterday I made this delicious soup:

Note - I don't measure everything when I cook, I just go by feel, experience, what I have on hand, and my mood.  I encourage to trust your own taste and instincts when you cook.  Pay attention and decide what you like and what your body is telling you would be good to eat.  I wanted lots of garlic, so I used about 10 bulbs in this soup, in a base of about 8 - 10 cups of chicken broth.

Escarole Soup
Soak and then cook some chick peas.
Add to chicken broth.  (I used some homemade, first cooking and de-boning a chicken for sandwiches.)
Add:
lots of whole garlic cloves
lots of chopped escarole
some chopped onion
the cooked chick peas
a few hot peppers (I used 7 of our "Venice" peppers)
a bit of ginger
some black peppercorns

Cook gently until the escarole is nice and soft.  (Ours simmered all day long while we cleared out the garden.)

Another note: We like spicy food and the Venice peppers are pretty hot.  The broth ended up having a nice heat to it that tasted good and felt sort of healthful, along with the garlic.  Adjust everything to suit your own preference.